Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's aura blazed, his strength towering to a new height.

His mind seemed to open to a completely new feeling. It felt like his eyes were opening up from the first time in two lifetimes.

Ryu's body flashed.

When he appeared again, he stood above an expanse of dark mountains.

The clouds above were split as though a sword had been run through them. It erupted with cracks in space that could tear even a Path Extinction Realm expert in two with just a single touch.

The ground below shook and quaked. Tall peaks collapsed and avalanches started and gained momentum every moment.

Short of blazing pillars of fire rising up from the ground, the scene seemed right out the perfect picture of a world's end. And yet, Ryu only wanted to see more destruction.

His fist whipped out, the force of concentrated air behind it collapsing the space before him. It almost looked like a casual wave of his hand, but a hundred meter wide hold was blasted through a mountain peak over a kilometer away.

The walls of the hole were so smooth and uniform that it almost appeared to have been carved out by an artisan.

The spatial fluctuations grew wilder around Ryu, threatening to swallow him whole. But in that moment, his Immortal Rings trembled.

The energies of the world seemed to come to a grinding halt. Everything within ten kilometers of Ryu became the perfect picture of stillness.

Ryu stood in abject silence for a moment, his overwhelming strength speaking for itself.

His Spiritual Sense spread outward, blanketing the same ten kilometer distance with ease. Every nook and cranny of that radius was reflected within Ryu's mind, dancing along with the images of his thoughts.

Ryu took a step forward.

His body flickered and vanished. When he appeared once more, he stood above a Clan of Rotting Apes, his gaze cold and without the slightest hint of emotion.

The roars hardly reached his ears as he pressed a palm downward.

A wall of energy formulated on a whim, covering an impossible span.

The roars of the Rotting Apes very quickly became ones of shock and horror before they were overwhelmed by whimpers. Their bodies were locked in space, even their own qi didn't seem to want to listen to their call, shaking them to their very cores.

An entire settlement was destroyed in the blink of an eye, the only thing remaining of its existence being a single palm print that seemed to have descended down as the divine punishment of a God.

Ryu watched this scene without much of a reaction.

He looked at his hand, feeling as though his attack had been somewhat weak.

His grimoire appeared above his head, shimmering resplendently. He could feel his Fire Dragon blood boiling as his hand rose up again.

Fire Dragon's Claw.

Ryu's gaze flickered into slits, blazing with a ruby red. At the same time, his grimoire rose, flipping to pages bathed in a sea of black red fire.

An illusory scaled claw rose into the air. It was over a hundred meters long, the space around it crackling and popping as all the moisture burnt to nothingness.

Ryu's hand descended, causing the claw to crash through a mountain range in the distance.

Everything in its wake was obliterated. Lines of earth it hadn't even touched were incinerated to ash, leaving nothing but a clear path toward the devastation of where it landed.

A stretch of four claw marks dug deep into the ground. The trenches were so deep and seemingly endless that nothing but an all encompassing darkness could be see within, replacing the once bustling Clan that had just been in that location.

As expected, the methods of fire control the Fire Dragon Clan had were far beyond just fire breathing. In fact, the fire breathing technique Ryu had used in the past was just the simplest and was based on a crude instinct hidden within his blood. But, with his master's Visualization, he could not only feel these techniques with more clarity, he could use them while resonating with his Bloodlines and not placing undo pressure on his body.

Ryu grasped out a palm, causing two Nether Keys to shoot toward him.

The moment it touched him, a flash of light passed by and he felt something trying to imprint itself in his mind once again.

But, this time, Ryu completely stone walled it, grinding it to dust with his [Divine Chaotic Annihilation]. He had no interest in taking the risk of losing another year of his life. Even if it was the Dream Wraith that was responsible, there was no telling what kind of method it was using.

As for the legacies that came with them, Ryu was able to read them without allowing it to be imprinted into his mind. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it wasn't difficult with his Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils.

'A Rotten Ape Clan contract and a Sword Beak Rotting Raven contract.'

Ryu shook his head and ignored these two, not bothering to form them in his mind.

Though the formations were far more complex, this wasn't why. With his improved soul, it was well within Ryu's ability. It was rather that he couldn't be bothered. They were too weak. He would be better off using more Skeleton Warriors and leaning into his comprehension abilities.

'I can't sense Nemesis on this world anymore. Goaman is also not here. That can only mean that Sarriel ascended to the third floor with them already.'

Ryu's body flickered once again, appearing back on the mountain range the Death Worm hid within. He felt that he had outgrown this Immortal Cave. His current strength was already beyond the Hecate of the path and even before his breakthrough, he was confident in matching her blow for blow.

But, Immortal Caves didn't just fall out of the sky. He would have to either refine his own or explore some more Ruins to find another.

This world seemed like it was on the verge of collapsing, but somehow, Ryu felt that it would hold itself together no matter what. It was definitely relying on something far greater than just what he could see.

Unfortunately, as powerful as he had become, it came at the cost of increasing the strength of his Heavenly Pupils. Everything was about give and take.

He could only go to the third floor to peel back this final layer. But first…

He wanted to know what Isemeine knew.